Oil Change Scam Caught On Camera

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When you bring your car in for an oil change, you don’t expect to spend more than $20-$40 tops. But what happens when the service advisors tells you that you need to have necessary work done on your car or your car will suffer a catastrophic failure?

For most people, you’d take the word of that service advisor and have the work done. But according to a recent report by CBC News out of Canada, a lot of work done by these “quick lube” shops is just plain malarky. Some of the services provided didn’t even need to be done.

Check out the video below for all the juicy details. It’s 21 minutes long, so make sure you carve out a bit of time to watch the whole ordeal play out.

To add insult to injury, some of the repairs were charged to customers without the actual service done.

Oil, oil filter and filters for air are all very simple things to do and should be done by yourself if you have any physical competence. There are a lot of guides out there for car maintenance that can be accessed on Youtube or online forums.

If some repairs and maintenance items look too complicated, a trusted mechanic should be sourced. Avoid online sources such as Yelp and simply ask around. Family, friends and even your girlfriend or boyfriend is bound to know someone whom they’ve had a good car maintenance/repair relationship with.

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And when you do find a mechanic you trust, it’s a give and take relationship based on being a genuine human relationship. If you take care of your mechanic, he’ll take care of you. You happen to have a few spare lift tickets and you know your mechanic likes to ski? Send them his way. Got a deal on beer? Send a 6-pack his way!

The next time you come in for repairs, he just might hook you up and actually be genuinely invested in your car like it was his own. Mechanics shouldn’t expect such treatment and should do their jobs regardless of who comes in, but mechanics aren’t robots. They’re people too.

H/T – Speed Society